John’s Postings

'I feel these wires' - Andy Hawks

September 08, 2008

Kent Cutting

My Aunt's husband, Uncle Kent, died on my 39th birthday a few days
ago. It's a tough loss to absorb. By the time he was diagnosed with
incurable cancer he only had a few weeks to live. He came home to die
and very soon family and friends gathered around him and lent their
strength and love during his final days. The hospice nurse said she
had never seen such a large and tight-knit group turn out and that it
was probably a great comfort to Kent.

His funeral is tomorrow and I'm still 3000+ miles away. Hurricane Ike
was scheduled to hit Florida tomorrow and I didn't feel it would be
appropriate to leave my family and job when it was still possible to
make travel arrangements. Now it's too late and I wish I was there.

Funny thing is, I don't even have a dark suit in my closet. I'm not
likely to get one either. It's not that I'm afraid of death. I don't
welcome it, but I believe that you have to make the most of your life
while you're granted your short stay on this planet. I do feel the
loss of Kent's future contributions to his family and friends, his
propensity to make good things happen for people he might not even
know, and the ripples of positive change that his life and love
created. But mostly, I want to celebrate the good life that Kent led.

I don't want a dark suit at my funeral. It should be colorful, loud,
and full of music and good times remembered.

One can't live in fear of the fact that death may come at any time.
But rather its eventuality should inform each action so that you live
each day to its fullest. No day but today -- as they say in the musical
RENT. So for Uncle Kent, I promise to do better, live each moment with
more purpose, and celebrate each day with my family and friends.

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July 30, 2008

Bus Stop

All his worldly possessions
are in four suitcases,
one backpack, and
two plastic shopping bags from
the market.

From the bus stop
life looks like a freeway
with no on ramp.
When the bus does arrive,
how will he get his life on board.

There is no plan
for when you hit bottom.
Only the urge
to move on, hit the road.
leave one life, and start another.

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July 30, 2008

Call me crazy

Call me Ishmael. Bennigan's and Steak and Ale just filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy; that's the kind where all assets are eliminated to pay-down debt. I'll miss the Monte-Cristo at Bennigan's (although my arteries will no doubt thank me), but the restaurant market has been over-crowded. That's over 300 stores closed and certainly another 4000 or so unemployed workers jettisoned into an already crowded job hunting market.

I am seeing a common thread in this ongoing recession, the worst hit with the largest numbers of layoffs are those working in the service industry. Not coincidentally, that has been the fastest growing sector of job growth in the US for a couple decades now. So those workers will be unlikely to find other service industry jobs. But what else is there?

All along we've been warned, this economy is unsustainable. But an individual is powerless to change the direction of the economy. It takes economic policy that empowers people to create companies that create the type of long-term sustainable jobs need. Right now we need affordable training programs and new jobs that will be around for decades.

We can actually kill two birds with one stone with a patently obvious solution. Our nations infrastructure and transit system is broken. Fixing the two would employ a large share of the currently unemployed. Other projects like a "race to space" green initiative and an actual "race to space" to colonize the Moon and/or Mars, would also create jobs. You can start by doubling the R&D budget and by letting NASA earn residuals on the products and technologies they invent.

At the same time we should be encouraging non-service industry small business growth through entrepreneurism. Start a program that gives everyone enrolled the chance to have one business license, to employee up to 25 workers who will pay no payroll tax on the first 25K of their yearly earnings, and to pay no other taxes other than personal income tax for revenues up to $1 million a year. Starting a business online these days is easy, so I see a lot of takers for this program.

While we're at it, and this may seem minor, but the patent, trademark, and copyright system is broken. It's stifling invention and preventing the sort of rapid technology increases that will help us continue to close the productivity gap.

This has become sort of a long rant. But I wanted to get it out there so it can be refined.

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July 13, 2008

The Outquisition What A Show

The WorldChanging Blog is about affecting positive change, but you can't look at the world for five minutes these days and not help but notice that the path the world appears to be on does not lead to the golden city, but rather one of post-crash depression. The question now is how do we deal with it.

Alex Steffan of WorldChanging and Cory Doctorow, author and of BoingBoing Blog, had an interesting discussion about what type of hero would be needed in this world. Instead of coming up with something from a comic book, their idea is one that looks something like the opposite of the inquisition, spreading knowledge instead of squelching it.

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July 13, 2008

RENT closing on Broadway 12 years later. How the city has changed

The NY Times looks at the musical RENT and how it reflected the city then and how much the city has changed since. The city may have changed and the musical become riddled with references to the past, but the message remains as strong as ever - No Day But Today. Live every minute as if it could be your last.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/nyregion/thecity/13rent.html?_r=1&ref=thecity&oref=slogin

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July 01, 2008

Psalm for the Internet Age

Life is a river.
Each byte of information
polishes my mind.

Life is a river
Feeding directly to my
cortex for sorting

Data feeds my soul
Manna from the internet
Life is a river.

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June 29, 2008

Like Another Hole In My Head

I really need another place to blog like I need another hole in my
head. But actually, I think this could be fairly useful as a place to
collect my thoughts and other related kibble. I'll get to work on
that.

In the meantime, here's some music from the Firehouse Five.

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